Global Taxonomy
Initiative : in-depth review of the implementation
of the programme of work for the Global Taxonomy Initiative

The Conference of the Parties

1. Welcomes the progress made in the implementation of the programme
of work for the Global Taxonomy Initiative, as reported in the note by the
Executive Secretary (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/11/5) on the in-depth review of the implementation
of the programme of work for the Global Taxonomy Initiative;

2. Notes with appreciation the contributions to the Global Taxonomy
Initiative made by BioNET‑INTERNATIONAL, the Global Biodiversity Information
Facility, CABI International, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)
and Species 2000 and encourages these organizations and initiatives
to continue contributing to the implementation of the Convention;

3. Notes that some Parties and other Governments have made significant
progress in implementing activities pursuant to the programme of work for the
Global Taxonomy Initiative;

4. Notes that the taxonomic impediment is particularly serious in
countries with mega-diversity;

5. Emphasizes the need to build and retain capacity to address the
taxonomic impediment, and in this context, explore options to ensure the long-term
sustainability of the necessary financial support, and invites BioNET‑INTERNATIONAL
and other relevant organizations, in consultation with the Coordination Mechanism
for the Global Taxonomy Initiative, to establish a special fund for the Global
Taxonomy Initiative, and to report on progress to the Conference of the Parties
at its ninth meeting;

6. Recalling target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
(“A widely accessible working list of known plant species, as a step towards
a complete world flora”), welcomes the progress made by Species 2000,
the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and collaborating partners towards the achievement
of this target;

7. Adopts as a target under operational objective 3 of the programme
of work for the Global Taxonomy Initiative “A widely accessible checklist of
known species, as a step towards a global register of plants, animals, microorganisms
and other organisms”, bearing in mind the urgent need for timely provision
of scientific names of organisms to support implementation of work under the
Convention on Biological Diversity;

8. Adopts the planned activities to support implementation of the
programmes of work on mountain biological diversity, invasive alien species,
protected areas, and island biological diversity contained in the annex to
this recommendation as complementary to the programme of work contained in
the annex to decision VI/8;

9. Urges Parties and other Governments that have not done so to:

Establish national focal points for the Global Taxonomy Initiative so
that they can contribute to implementation of the programme of work at
national level;

Undertake or complete or update, as a matter of priority, national taxonomic
needs assessments, including related technical, technological and capacity
needs, and establish priorities for taxonomic work that take into account
country-specific circumstances. These assessments should take into account
ongoing national biodiversity strategies and action plans as well as
regional strategies and initiatives under development, with particular regard
to user needs and priorities;

Contribute, as appropriate, to regional and global taxonomic needs assessments;

Contribute, where possible, to the implementation of the planned activities
contained in the programme of work for the Global Taxonomy Initiative;

Contribute, as appropriate, to initiatives facilitating the digitization
of information on specimens of natural history collections, noting the
importance of accessible data to support actions under the Convention;

Use and support existing mechanisms for strengthening collaboration and
communication among government agencies, the scientific community, research
institutions, universities, collection holders, the private sector and
stakeholders in order to improve the response to taxonomic needs for decision-making;

Promote taxonomy and taxonomic products and related research as a cornerstone
for inventory and monitoring of biological diversity in the framework
of the implementation of the Convention and to achieve its objectives;

Develop and implement strategies to support the taxonomic research necessary
to implement the Convention;

Collect and disseminate information on the availability of taxonomic resources
with a view to maximising the use of relevant existing resources for
the effective implementation of the Global Taxonomy Initiative;

Develop and implement capacity-building activities related to the Global
Taxonomy Initiative, such as training in the areas of identification
of taxa, information exchange and database management, taking into account
national and region-specific needs;

Mobilize financial and technical resources to assist developing countries,
in particular least developed and small island developing States, and
countries with economies in transition, including those with high levels
of biodiversity, to build and maintain systems and significant institutional
infrastructure in order to adequately obtain, collate and curate biological
specimens as well as to facilitate information exchange, including repatriation
of information, on their biodiversity;

Promote cooperation and networking at national, regional, sub regional
and global levels in support of capacity-building activities related
to the Global Taxonomy Initiative, in accordance with Articles 18 and 15
of the Convention, by, inter alia, making information available through
the clearing‑house mechanism and other means;

Provide, within the framework of the terms of reference contained in decision
V/9, clear guidance to national focal points for the Global Taxonomy
Initiative on duties and specific tasks to better communicate and promote
the objectives of the Initiative, working in collaboration with other stakeholders
and in accordance with country needs;

Facilitate, as appropriate, the integration of taxonomic information on
nationally held collections in regional and global databases and information
systems;

11. Requests the Executive Secretary to:

Consult with relevant organizations and funding agencies regarding the
global taxonomic needs assessment called for in planned activity 3 of the
programme of work for Global Taxonomy Initiative, in order to consider, inter
alia, the scope of the assessment, options for methodology, and potential
implementing agencies, with a view to completing the assessment as soon
as possible, taking into account users’ needs;

Continue collaborating with relevant conventions, organizations and institutions,
and to foster synergies between relevant processes and programmes, in
order to make available taxonomic information, expertise and relevant technologies
needed to achieve the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity,
noting in particular, taxonomic priorities at national, regional and
global levels;

Continue collaborating with existing initiatives, including the Global
Biodiversity Information Facility, the Integrated Taxonomic Information
System and Species 2000, to develop the Electronic Catalogue of Names of
Known Organisms and the Catalogue of Life;

Continue collaborating with existing initiatives, including those of BioNET‑INTERNATIONAL,
the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, IUCN, and CAB International,
to develop the human capacities, tools and infrastructure needed to support
implementation of the programme of work on the Global Taxonomy Initiative;

Undertake, as part of the Global Initiative on Communication, Education
and Public Awareness programme and in collaboration with relevant partners,
activities demonstrating the importance of taxonomy for the general public,
including information on products, lessons learned, and accomplishments
of taxonomy-related projects, and activities encouraging public participation,
recognizing the importance of volunteer naturalists and local and indigenous
people as a source of expertise;

Develop, in consultation with the Coordination Mechanism of the Global
Taxonomy Initiative, other relevant consultative bodies, stakeholders
and organizations, for each of the planned activities of the programme of
work on the Global Taxonomy Initiative, specific taxonomic, outcome‑oriented
deliverables to be considered as additions under “(ii) Outputs” with a timeline
for possible consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its ninth
meeting;

Report to the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties on progress
made towards the target for the programme of work as specified in paragraph
7 above;

Include the Global Taxonomy Initiative in the joint work plan between
the secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International
Plant Protection Convention, with a view to exploring synergies in the
work under the two conventions, with particular regard to invasive alien
species;

12. Requests the Global Environment Facility to continue to support
the implementation of the planned activities contained in the programme of
work on the Global Taxonomy Initiative, including taxonomic needs assessments,
projects with a taxonomic focus or clearly identified taxonomic components,
and regional activities on taxonomic capacity development and access to technology;

13. Further requests the Global Environment Facility to provide financial
resources to developing countries, in particular the small island developing
States among them, and countries with economies in transition, for projects
which help to establish and operationalize their national focal points for
the Global Taxonomy Initiative, as well as financial resources to support capacity-building
activities such as, inter alia, taxonomic training related to specific
taxa and information technologies;

14. Requests the secretariats of the Convention and the Global Environment
Facility to conduct a joint analysis of funded GTI-related projects and relevant
project information contained in national reports, including analysis of the
resources directed specifically to capacity-building, with a view to extracting
best practices and sharing information and experience in promoting financial
support for the Initiative;

15. Requests the Executive Secretary to convene, with support from
relevant organizations and donors, a project‑development seminar aimed primarily
for those countries that have already identified taxonomic needs or that have
submitted proposals for pilot projects under the Global Taxonomy Initiative,
to promote formulation of country-driven projects based on identified taxonomic
needs and to explore potential benefits of developing new, and enhancing existing,
regional or global projects to address common taxonomic needs that have already
been identified.

Annex

ADDITIONAL PLANNED ACTIVITIES

I. PLANNED ACTIVITY: MOUNTAIN BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

(i) Rationale

1. The taxonomic composition of mountain biodiversity varies with the biogeographic
region, the latitude and the altitude of the mountain as well as with the
relief. In some cases, mountains provide a necessary seasonal resource for
organisms at other times found in lowland biomes. Furthermore most groups
of organisms have representatives in the lowland as well as in montane region,
and so a vast range of groups of organisms is encountered rather than a few
taxonomic groups. Consequently, montane regions are often hot spots of biodiversity,
which renders their full taxonomic treatment a challenge and requires many
actors and experts for different organisms.

2. As most mountain ranges extend over considerable length and area, a regional
approach to mountain biodiversity is of paramount importance, and relevant
information is available in many different databases and inventories. Therefore,
the Global Taxonomy Initiative can contribute to the mountain biodiversity
programme of work in several ways, including collating relevant information
and expertise.

(ii) Outputs

3. An increased knowledge of the species composition of mountains through
national taxonomic studies and inventories. The Global Taxonomy Initiative
could aid the programme of work on mountain biological diversity through:

(a) Working lists of organisms - assembling working lists of organisms
occurring in montane areas including their vernacular names, with reference
to altitude and relief;

(b) Working identification keys – producing identification keys in
printed and electronic form useful for the conservation, monitoring and sustainable
use of organisms in montane areas;

(c) Dissemination of data – distributing the working lists and keys
as widely as possible to increase their usefulness;

(d) Human resources – address and support taxonomic experts to encourage
their participation in relevant training programmes, and supporting the establishment
of local reference and data collections of montane biota;

4. As current knowledge of mountain biodiversity is still inadequate, the
Global Taxonomy Initiative will make an ongoing effort to develop and improve
working lists and working identification keys for montane organisms. Within
the next three years, it will attempt to develop taxonomic guides, computerized
lists of montane organisms, and identification keys in consultation with
appropriate national taxonomy and management agencies.

(iv) Actors

5. The mountain biodiversity programme of work identified many relevant actors,
such as Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) of DIVERSITAS, Mountain
Partnership, Mountain Forum, BioNET-INTERNATIONAL (to organize regional LOOPs),
the FAO for agricultural aspects, the clearing‑house mechanism of the Convention
and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) and national funding bodies for financial support, the Global
Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) (for plants), national organizations,
nature conservation agencies and programmes including relevant non-governmental
organizations, local communities, and many others.

6. The scientific community with past and current research programmes on
mountain biodiversity and the natural history museums with specimens collected
over decades hold a key role in providing the expertise and relevant information
and should actively be included.

(v) Mechanisms

7. Existing mechanisms, such as the clearing‑house mechanism and Coordination
Mechanism of the Global Taxonomy Initiative, Mountain Partnership, and Mountain
Forum, and GBIF could be used to coordinate and promote the efforts.`

(vi) Financial, human resources and other capacity requirements

8. Financial, human resource and capacity building require funds to be identified
within existing and new projects, as well as additional resources to be made
available to increase technical capacity in developing countries.

(vii) Pilot projects

9. Pilot projects could be built on information for a number of montane regions
of the world, such as the Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas, the Eastern Arc
to produce the outputs in short term and to evaluate their usefulness. The
Global Taxonomy Initiative could address, inter alia, the needs of
local and regional capacity‑building by coordinating workshops in collaboration
with mountain partnership, Mountain Forum and DIVERSITAS, focussing on mountain
biodiversity conservation and monitoring.

II. PLANNED ACTIVITY: INVASIVE ALIEN SPECIES

(i) Rationale

10. Prevention and mitigation of the impacts of invasive alien species often
relies on timely access to taxonomic expertise, and to taxonomic resources
such as identification tools, information on species names, and biological
reference collections. For many pathways of introductions for invasive alien
species, effective prevention and mitigation may depend on detection and
monitoring activities that are undertaken at subregional, regional or even
global levels. Consequently, taxonomic capacities and information need to
be accessible to all countries in order to support effective prevention and
mitigation of potential impacts of invasive alien species. Better characterization
of species through research can be key to prediction, early detection and
monitoring of invasions. Better baseline taxonomic information on biological
diversity in areas that are exposed or vulnerable to key invasion pathways
(e.g., marine ports) can facilitate early detection of changes in species
composition that may result from invasive alien species. In addition, taxonomic
expertise can be important in the development of biological control measures
which may be considered by decision-makers for addressing invasive alien
species in particular cases.

(ii) Outputs

11. Outputs should comprise:

(a) Databases of invasive alien species and occurrences of invasions, developed
and/or expanded, and made widely available;

(b) Working identification keys for known invasive alien species associated
with key invasion pathways produced and disseminated;

(c) Working lists of organisms in areas that are exposed or susceptible to
key invasion pathways produced and utilized by local monitoring authorities.

(iii) Timing

12. Databases further developed and/or expanded and made widely available
within two years. Working identification keys for known invasive alien species
produced and disseminated within three years. Working lists of organisms
in areas that are exposed or susceptible to key invasion pathways produced
and utilized within three years.

(iv) Actors

13. Database development – IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Invasive
Species Specialist Group, Global Invasive Species Information Network, clearing-house
mechanism of the Convention, ITIS, IABIN, GBIF, Species 2000, BioNET-INTERNATIONAL.
Identification keys – scientific community, national Governments, natural
history museums and programmes. Working lists of organisms in areas that
are exposed or susceptible to key invasion pathways – national governments,
national and regional organizations including non-governmental organizations.

(v) Mechanisms

14. Coordinated efforts at the national and global levels by the actors identified
above will be an important mechanism. In addition, existing mechanisms, such
as the clearing-house mechanism of the Convention and the GBIF can function
as information portals.

(vi) Financial and human resources and other capacity requirements

15. Financial, human-resource and capacity building require resources to
be identified within existing and new projects, as well as additional resources
to be made available to increase technical capacity in developing countries.
GEF and national funding organizations would be important sources of financial
support.

III. PLANNED ACTIVITY: PROTECTED AREAS

(i) Rationale

16. Taxonomic expertise and information constitute key requirements for conservation
planning and sustainable natural resource management. This is especially
true in the case of protected areas, which are established with the goal
to conserve a significant part of natural biodiversity, but usually based
on limited knowledge or available information about the biodiversity they
actually contain. With no complete species inventory currently available
for any existing or planned larger protected area and relevant taxonomic,
distributional and biological information about many taxa with high conservation
value still missing, it will be difficult to achieve meaningful conservation
planning. The objective of the programme of work on protected areas is to
support the establishment of ecologically representative and effectively
managed national and regional systems of protected areas. Activity 1.1.2
of the programme of work specifically calls for establishing protected areas
in any large, intact or highly irreplaceable natural areas, as well as areas
securing the most threatened species, and activity 1.1.5 requests that gap
analyses at national and regional levels of the representativeness of the
protected area system be undertaken (by 2006). The Global Taxonomy Initiative
could play an important role particularly for the identification, establishment
and management of protected areas (decision VII/28, annex, programme element
1) through focusing on biodiversity inventories and gap analysis of existing
inventories, and in the development of standards for managing and monitoring
protected areas (decision VII/28, annex, programme element 4) through facilitating
assessments and comparisons of different taxonomic components of biodiversity
covered and sustained through the existing network of protected areas. In
light of threats to protected areas through climate change and invasive alien
species, it is important to understand current constraints on species and
populations, and how these would determine distribution under changing conditions.
Access to accurate information on current distributions and ability to model
these is important for appropriate management and policy development.

(ii) Outputs

17. Improved and augmented biodiversity inventories of protected areas of
all kinds, also to be expanded into monitoring efforts to record changes
of species and populations over time. Taxonomic guides for key invertebrate
organisms, lower plants and microorganisms, economically important and threatened
species. Information on current distribution and occurrence of important
species in protected areas, including population trends. Identification of
habitats and priority setting for establishing new protected areas, through
plotting distributions of species at local, national and regional levels.
Mobilization and augmentation of specimen and observational-level data pertaining
to species to allow modelling of current distributions and distributions
under different models of climate change and of other biotic and a biotic
changes (e.g. land-use change, invasive species).

(iii) Timing

18. The target date for activity 1.1.5, on conducting gap analysis is 2006.
The target date for goal 4.3 (to assess and monitor protected area status
and trends) and goal 4.4 (to ensure that scientific knowledge contributes
to the establishment and effectiveness of protected areas) of the programme
of work is 2010. Hence, outputs need to be produced within the next four
years, but efforts will need to be ongoing.

(iv) Actors

19. National agencies and local authorities concerned with protected area
administration and management in concert with taxonomic institutions, especially
natural history museums, biosystematics units at universities and other research
institutions, botanic gardens and culture collections, and the IUCN Species
Survival Commission, together with nature conservation agencies including
international non-governmental organizations such as Conservation International,
BirdLife International, Flora and Fauna International, WWF, the World Resources
Institute (WRI), and local communities. Parataxonomists could also play an
important role. Other actors include the clearing-house mechanism of the
Convention and GBIF (as data portals), GEF and national funding organizations
for financial support, and BioNET-INTERNATIONAL (to organize regional LOOPs).
Other biodiversity conventions, including the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands,
the World Heritage Convention, the Convention on Migratory Species, and the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES), and the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) biosphere reserve
programme could also play an important role. Direct linkages to relevant
ongoing or planned taxonomy-related, capacity building projects should also
be implemented, e.g., the International Pollinator Initiative (IPI), the
Census of Marine Life (CoML), the Botanical/Zoological Network for Eastern
Africa, the Partnerships of Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy (PEET), and the
recently proposed European Distributed Institute for Taxonomy (EDIT).

(v) Mechanisms

20. Coordinated effort at national and global levels by the actors identified
above will be an important mechanism. Mobilization of extant data and their
presentation in an appropriate manner, with the development of the analytical
tools, is required. The need for identification keys, inventories and primary
data must be communicated effectively to the key agencies and funding bodies,
with an indication of priority.

(vi) Financial, human resources and other capacity requirements

21. Insofar as the requirements need a focus cutting across traditional work
processes and patterns of the data providers, funding will be required that
is focussed at meeting the identified needs.

(vii) Pilot projects

22. Stimulate and undertake efforts to carry out All-Taxon Biodiversity Inventories
(ATBIs) in existing or planned protected areas. Gap analyses of representative
taxa found in protected areas, in the context of the distribution and presence
of those taxa at other sites nationally and regionally, demonstrating the
development and use of such analyses in protected area selection and management.
Mobilization of primary occurrence data of species in a protected area, provision
of these data to country of origin, and analysis of distributions using a
niche modelling system.

IV. ISLAND BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

23. As noted in SBSTTA recommendation X/1, paragraph 6, islands incorporate
all the thematic areas (coastal and marine biological diversity, forest
biological diversity, inland water biological diversity, dry and sub humid
land biological diversity, mountain biological diversity and agricultural al
biological diversity) considered under the Convention. Thus, the planned activities
already identified under operational objectives 4 (on thematic programmes of
work) and 5 (relating to work on cross cutting issues) in the GTI programme
of work (decision VI/8, annex, planned activities 8-18) already identified
for thematic and cross cutting programmes of work could also be considered
to generate taxonomic information needed for the conservation of island biological
diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing
of benefits arising from its use.

24. However, recognizing the current alarming rate of loss of island biological
diversity in both biodiversity ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ spots; that due to their
isolation, island environments are witnessing a unique evolution of often
endemic and characteristic flora and fauna; that islands are microcosms
of their continental counterparts; that vulnerability of small islands require
not only special but urgent attention, special support is needed to islands,
in particular small islands, to implement, as a matter of urgency, the
planned activities 8 to18 of the GTI programme of work. In addition, for small
islands in particular, regional approaches to meeting taxonomic needs and building
capacity should be emphasized.